Godly Play
What are we here for?
We meet here to talk about Godly Play, to share what it’s all about and to discuss how to do it better.
The weekly blog posts are designed to help Sunday school teachers prepare for their Godly Play lessons, and the individual pages (see the tabs at the top of this page) share information about how we do Godly Play at First Baptist Church, Greenville, SC.
We’d love to hear from teachers everywhere, not just the ones at our church! We hope you’ll join our circle and share your ideas!
What Godly Play is Not
Godly Play is quite different from the traditional model in which the teacher tells the children what they need to know. Godly Play is not about things that are that simple. It is not just about learning lessons or keeping children entertained. It is about locating each lesson in the whole system of Christian language and involving the creative process to discover the depths of meaning in them.
What is Godly Play?
According to the Godly Play Foundation, Godly Play is a creative and imaginative approach to Christian nurture.
Godly Play is about understanding how each of the stories of God’s people connects with the child’s own experience and relationship with God.
Godly Play respects the innate spirituality of children and encourages curiosity and imagination in experiencing the mystery and joy of God.
Read more about Godly Play here.
How do we do Godly Play at First Baptist Greenville?
Christians of many different denominations use Godly Play and probably do it differently, even within the same denomination. In this blog, I describe Godly Play by sharing the way our church does it. That doesn’t mean that it’s the best way or the prescribed way, or the only way, of course, but it’s the way that suits us best.
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
Welcome to our lesson for June 24, the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
What a wonderful story about what it means to be a neighbor and our responsibilities as followers of The Way to help those around us. If you’re at FBC Greenville, you might want to include time in your morning to go visit the Good Samaritan statue near the remembrance garden.
Here are some wondering questions. Thank you for writing down their responses.
Wondering Questions:
1. I wonder who is the neighbor to the person who was hurt, had everything taken from him, and was left by the side of the road half dead?
2. I wonder what would happen if the person finding the injured traveler were a child?
3. I wonder what it means to be a neighbor.
4. I wonder if you’ve ever had anyone be a neighbor to you like this Samaritan was to the hurt man.
5. I wonder if you’ve ever been the one who was the Good Samaritan?
Idea Sparkers for our Gift to God Time
Here are some ideas for the parable itself:
1. Make get well cards as a way to help others, like the Good Samaritan in the story
2. Act out the story.
3. Make a collage or drawing on who is our neighbor.
4. Make a collage or drawing on How I Can Be a Good Samaritan.
5. You could also go with the What Would Jesus Do theme. Make a bracelet with WWJD, or a mural of the story, or act out scenes of different conflicts and ask the question, “What would Jesus do?”
6. If you’ve visited the Good Samaritan statue, why not ask the children if they’d like to try to make their own with play dough or quick dry clay?
See more art response ideas at my Pinterest Page, here.
Thanks for all you do!